I am a new tandem master with about 100 tandems. I had a premature opening the other day out of a C-182. I did a through gear check before gearing up and checked my handles before exit. The video shows a clean climb, although we did flip on exit. When I threw the drouge, it released immediately. After I checked the canopy, I checked and found both drouge releases fully seated in they're hard housings. I did, however, notice that my passenger was unusually low and the student release housing was pulled straight by the lateral connections. My question is, is it possible that extra tension on the hard housing pulled the release even though the ripcord was fully seated? This is the only possible explanation I can come up with. Has anybody else had this happen? any input would is appreciated.

I am a new tandem master with about 100 tandems. I had a premature opening the other day out of a C-182. I did a through gear check before gearing up and checked my handles before exit. The video shows a clean climb, although we did flip on exit. When I threw the drouge, it released immediately. After I checked the canopy, I checked and found both drouge releases fully seated in they're hard housings. I did, however, notice that my passenger was unusually low and the student release housing was pulled straight by the lateral connections. My question is, is it possible that extra tension on the hard housing pulled the release even though the ripcord was fully seated? This is the only possible explanation I can come up with. Has anybody else had this happen? any input would is appreciated.

Yes it was a dual hawk. and yes the loop was there. the secondary release was through the loop and the primary was not when we landed. as I said earlier, both releases were fully seated in the housings. That was the first thing I checked after checking the canopy. my passenger was wearing one of the older harnesses with the long strap on the top connection points. I am assuming that's why he was so much lower than normal.

Hmph... dunno, a hard housing wont "stretch" that far without having obvious signs of damage. I could see it if the super tack failed at either end of the housing. You may want to check. Its also very possible the handle was snagged on something during exit, or the sneaky bugger pulled it

If so, a snag on the plane or the pax flailing could have pulled the handle enough to clear the dogbone and the bungee would keep the handle in place.

Just a thought.

I hadn't thought of that. Thanks. It didn't really cause a problem. I'm just trying to prevent it from happening again. Luck for me it happened in May and not in Janurary . Thanks agtain for the input. I'm learning quite a bit from reading the other threads as well. There is a lot of usuful info here for someone starting out.

I explained to him that the parachute open early and that we had a while before we landed. he seemed to really enjoy the canopy ride. Luckily we were over my home town, so I was able to point out some land marks while trying to make the best of the situation. one good thing, we had a lot of time for practice flares

Another thing to add from personal experience. Make sure the velcro is mated properly under the mudflap on the instructor handle. Check it every time. Twice during my early days I forgot to make sure the velcro was properly mated. Loose velcro, 120 mile an hour wind and boom....premie. Stick your finger all the way under the mudflap and give it a good press on EVERY jump.Make sure it's ALL the way in there and mated properly. What happens is the wind starts to catch the orange handle and it will bounce it's way out. It's the same reason I pull the slack of my reserve cables and stow it under the reserve flap. Keeps the cable from bouncing in the wind which has led to premature reserve openings

Another possibility is that the cable was too short. Sometimes the ends fray, forcing riggers to trim a little (half an inch) off the end and melt the plastic to hide the steel cable. If you do that too many times, you end up with too short a cable. Try comparing the length of the release cable - on the offending rig - with other rigs on the DZ.

The long term solution is to - follow the lead of Strong's latest (one-pin) prototype - and sew another Slimline buckle onto the TI's leg pad. That way there is less risk of hyper-extending the housing and one less buckle to mess with. The primary advantage of snapping the drogue release to the instructor's leg pad is that it mimics the BOC ... found on most modern skydiving containers.